Local Auckland kayak angler Russell (aka Rusty) contacted me recently to advise his new Stealth Kayaks Pro Fisha 575 had arrived in the country and was ready for some outfitting. Rusty imported the Pro Fisha direct from the AU Stealth distributor and to my knowledge this is the only Pro Fisha 575 in NZ so far.

Rusty asked for some assistance from me to outfit it with some key essentials including a range of accessories from Railblaza.. Rusty was more than happy to leave it with me for a few days to outfit and take it for a paddle.. I have taken this opportunity to give it a bit of a review, this will be a 4 part review covering the 4 different trips out in the kayak.. I have chosen to do it this way so as to give the kayak a fair appraisal rather than make assumptions based on one experience…In the first 3 parts I will give more of a trip report from each paddle leaving part 4 for a complete overview of features, benefits, strengths and weaknesses.

(Rusty out off Browns Bay Auckland )

As with trying any new kayak it takes time to get used to all the subtle differences, after 4 sessions in varied conditions and environments I feel I have a good understanding of the Pro Fisha. I have paddled a few of the Stealth models that were imported into NZ last year including the Evo 495, BFS & Toura (see below video from that test paddle) … this one is the biggest and fastest in the Fisha range.. see below links to each of the 4 Parts of this review (I will have all 4 parts uploaded by the end of October 2012)

Hi, sorry I have been a little bogged down with other projects..plan to have part 3 finished this week…for what its worth I really liked the Pro Fisha 575..it has plenty of great features and would be a welcome addition to my garage if I cold justify yet another yak..if I had to choose just one Stealth kayak for all the things I like to do in a kayak I would probably go with the Supa Lite as it is better for playing in the surf I get here at my local, the Pro Fisha 575 is not that user friendly in the short choppy surf and wind swells we get here in the East Auckland region..this is due to the lack of rocker..this is a good thing if you want to cover distance fast..i see the Supa lite as ticking more boxes for my needs. thanks for following me. Regards Jason

It was a long time a ago that I paddled the Dorado..thats a Kaskazi kayak right?..from memory it was much like the Evolution range… again not much rocker so a little more difficult to manage in short chop..that said with time you get used to it like any kayak..yes the profisha had a bit of hull slap when paddling into the chop…